- The Bulls gave up 150 points to the depleted Timberwolves on Sunday. Coach Billy Donovan said in-game adjustments can only go so far if the effort level is lacking, Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun Times writes. ‘‘I can switch to zone, I can switch to different pick-and-roll coverages, but if the compete level isn’t high enough collectively as a unit, it doesn’t make a difference,’’ Donovan said. ‘‘When you line up and play, the beauty of it is it doesn’t make a difference what happened yesterday or two weeks ago. You are not escaping the moment of the physicality and what you’ve got to do.’’
- With the Bulls having to seriously consider blowing up their roster, K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago ranks their trade assets. DeMar DeRozan tops that list, followed by Zach LaVine and Alex Caruso. Johnson believes DeRozan is the front office’s best hope to replenish the draft capital it surrendered in previous deals.
After clearing waivers on Sunday, Kostas Antetokounmpo has signed with Fenerbahce in Turkey for the rest of the season, according to Eurohoops.
Panathinaikos and Maccabi Tel Aviv also had interest in Antetokounmpo, per Eurohoops, but Fenerbahce had an advantage because of coach Dimitris Itoudis, who also coaches the Greek national team. Fenerbahce needs help at power forward because of injuries to a pair of former NBA players, Johnathan Motley and Nemanja Bjelica.
Antetokounmpo, 25, began the season on a two-way contract with the Bulls, but was waived Friday to make room for Carlik Jones. He didn’t appear in any games after signing with Chicago shortly before the start of training camp, but averaged 11.7 points and 6.3 rebounds in 12 games with the G League’s Windy City Bulls.
Antetokounmpo saw limited NBA action after being selected with the 60th pick in the 2018 draft. He got into two games during his lone season with the Mavericks and 20 combined games during two years with the Lakers.
- Bulls guard Lonzo Ball is “progressing towards (running),” coach Billy Donovan told K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago (Twitter link) and other media members. There’s no timetable on when he’ll be cleared to try running. Ball will require a “significant ramp-up” period for conditioning after he starts running before he can finally return to action. Ball hasn’t played since January due to persistent knee issues.
- Asked on Friday after the Bulls fell to 11-17 if the front office erred by bringing back nearly the same roster as last season, head coach Billy Donovan said he doesn’t feel that way, per K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago. “I think the character in that locker room is really, really good,” Donovan said. “I just think that with the adversity that happens in the game, we have to collectively have more resolve.”
The Bulls have waived forward Kostas Antetokounmpo, who was on a two-way deal, and signed guard Carlik Jones to fill their two-way opening, the team announced (via Twitter).
Jones, who turns 25 next week, was a rookie last season after going undrafted out of Louisville. He appeared in five NBA games in 2021/22 on 10-day hardship deals with the Mavericks and Nuggets, but spent most of his rookie year playing with the Texas Legends, the Mavs’ G League affiliate.
Jones played for the Bulls’ Summer League team in 2022 and was later signed to an Exhibit 10 deal, but was waived before the season started. He has spent all of this season with Chicago’s G League affiliate, the Windy City Bulls, averaging 20.9 PPG, 5.3 RPG, 7.6 APG and 1.2 SPG on .529/.431/.667 shooting through 14 games (34.4 MPG).
The second-year guard was on our list of five G League players making bids for NBA call-ups due to their strong performances, and now that has come to fruition.
Although he has appeared in NBA games in three separate seasons (from 2018-21), Antetokounmpo has never played a regular rotation role during previous stops with the Mavericks and Lakers. The 25-year-old has logged just 87 total minutes in 22 games, putting up 21 points and 23 rebounds during his limited action.
Antetokounmpo, who spent last season with French club ASVEL, originally signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the Bulls this fall, but had it converted to a two-way deal before the season started. He didn’t appear in any NBA games, but played in 12 games (28.9 MPG) for Windy City, averaging 11.7 PPG, 6.3 RPG, 1.2 SPG and 1.3 BPG on .670/.200/.500 shooting.
According to a report from Eurohoops.net, at least three EuroLeague teams are interested in Antetokounmpo’s services, including Greece’s Panathinaikos, Turkey’s Fenerbahce, and Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv. Antetokounmpo is the younger brother of two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.
- With Lonzo Ball‘s availability for this season still up in the air, the Bulls should be trying to find a way to add a proven point guard to their roster, argues Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times.
- The Bulls are not currently discussing a contract extension with center Nikola Vucevic, sources tell Fischer. He adds that Chicago never seriously considered renegotiating his deal. According to Fischer, the Bulls have been telling rival teams inquiring about trades that “they believe they can make the playoffs when healthy.” However, the latest report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski might damper that prospect.
Prior to the Bulls‘ matchup with New York on Wednesday, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski provided a gloomy update on point guard Lonzo Ball‘s status for the 2022/23 season.
Ball, who has yet to play this season, continues to be hampered by left knee pain despite two surgeries to address the issue in the past year. The first surgery was to repair a torn meniscus in January, and the second was an arthroscopic debridement procedure in September, which involves removing foreign objects or damaged/dead tissue from a wound.
“There are no guarantees, I’m told, that he plays at all this season.” Wojnarowski said on NBA Countdown (video link). “He’s rehabbing that knee now, he’s still feeling some pain in it. I think the hope is, that perhaps by the All-Star break in mid-February, that they have a sense of whether Lonzo Ball is ready to come back and play for Chicago.
“A lot of that may depend on where are the Bulls in the standings. Right now they’re 11th, they’re out of the playoff picture. I think if they’re lingering around that area, there will be a real decision to be made about whether he plays at all.”
Wojnarowski added that the Bulls will be faced with a lot of difficult decisions ahead of the trade deadline if the team continues to struggle, but “there’s no expectation you’ll see him (Ball), at least perhaps, until around the All-Star break.”
The last official update on Ball’s status came at the end of November, when coach Billy Donovan said that the guard’s rehab process had been going “really slow.” He added that Ball, who last played in January, was “not even close” to running, jumping or cutting.
Prior to Ball’s second surgery, ESPN reported that he visited “multiple specialists” in an attempt to figure out what was causing the discomfort in his knee and to explore possible treatments. At the time, a source told ESPN that the knee was “structurally sound,” but Ball’s pain hadn’t subsided after a summer of rest and rehab.
Ball has dealt with injuries throughout his six-year career, but this is by far his longest absence. The former No. 2 overall pick had a promising start with the Bulls last season, averaging 12.3 PPG, 5.4 RPG, 5.1 APG, 1.8 SPG and 0.9 BPG while shooting 42.3% from three-point range and playing strong defense in 35 games (34.6 MPG).
The Warriors have an estimated worth of $7.56 billion, according to the sports business website Sportico, which put out its annual NBA franchise valuations this week. Kurt Badenhausen of Sportico, who formerly published the franchise valuations for Forbes, has the Warriors well ahead of the Knicks ($6.58 billion), Lakers ($6.44 billion), Bulls ($4.09 billion), and Celtics ($3.92 billion) on the site’s full list.
Those valuations for the Warriors, Knicks, and Lakers are all noticeably higher than the figures Forbes put out in October, while the numbers for the Bulls and Celtics fall slightly below Forbes’ estimates.
Sportico is a little more bullish on the value of NBA franchises on the whole, with an estimated average valuation of $3 billion per team. Forbes’ report had the estimated average worth of an NBA franchise at $2.86 billion.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Assuming Team USA qualifies for the 2023 World Cup, which is all but assured, the U.S. club will play all its games in Manila, per Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. The World Cup will be played in Japan and Indonesia in addition to the Philippines, but each host nation got to pick one team it wanted to have for its group stage games. The Philippines, which will also host the final phase of the tournament, chose Team USA. Japan picked Slovenia (led by Luka Doncic), while Indonesia selected Canada.
- Larry Kestelman, the owner of Australia’s National Basketball League, has interest in bringing an NBL team to the Las Vegas Summer League and says the NBA is open to the idea, according to Matt Logue and Michael Randall of the Herald Sun (subscription required). “We used to take teams to China, like an NBL All-Star-type set up,” Kestelman said. “We’ve discussed this with the NBA before and they were open to it, so we will continue those discussions.” The NBA has had some of its teams play exhibition games against NBL squads during the preseason in recent years.
- The NBA announced on Wednesday that the third season of the Basketball Africa League (BAL) will tip off on March 11, 2023. As was the case in 2022, 12 top teams from 12 African countries will qualify to be part of the BAL season. Those teams will play a total of 38 games in Dakar, Senegal; Cairo, Egypt; and Kigali, Rwanda.
- Alex Caruso and Javonte Green were inserted into the Bulls‘ starting lineup in place of Ayo Dosunmu and Patrick Williams a couple of weeks ago. That lineup only lasted one game before minor injuries to Caruso and Green led to more adjustments. Caruso and Green could be back in the lineup again when the Bulls host the Knicks on Wednesday, according to Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times.
- Bulls rookie Dalen Terry isn’t ready to be a rotation piece, coach Billy Donovan told Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic. Terry has spent a majority of the last two months with the G League Windy City Bulls. “If you’re throwing him in the rotation you’re having to sit somebody else,” Donovan said of the 18th overall pick. “And right now, clearly, I don’t think he’s at the level of some of our guys. “